Television and video has played an instrumental role in advertising and selling products almost from moment it was invented. Early television programs were directly sponsored individual advertisers. Often a celebrity host would make a live plug for the sponsor at the beginning and end of a sponsored broadcast. Occasionally programs would be interrupted with a pitch made in the middle of the show. Over time such direct sponsorship evolved into the 30 and 60 second commercials that present day viewers are all too familiar with. Today advertising provides significant revenue for television networks and their local affiliates.
For a TV commercial to be effective it must be viewed by a large number of people. The commercial must make a significant impression on viewers so that they will remember the advertised product, and must positively dispose viewers toward the product such that a significant number of viewers will be moved to purchase the product. For as long as television commercials have existed, however, TV viewers have sought to avoid them. Viewers often use commercial breaks to get up and do other things, from getting something to eat or drink, using the restroom, or taking with their friends and family. Thus, an important aspect of TV commercials has always been to make interesting enough to maintain the viewer's attention. Another technique has been to broadcast TV commercials broadcast at a higher volume so that viewers may still hear the commercial even if they have walked away from the Television set.
The proliferation of video cassette recorders (VCRs) in the 1970s and 1980s introduced the concept of time shifting. With a VCR a viewer was able to record a television program and watch it later. The VCR gave viewers complete control over the playback of recorded programs. Once a show was recorded it was a simple thing to fast forward through commercial breaks in order to view a recorded program substantially without interruption. Of course, allowing viewers to skip commercials prevents advertisers from delivering their messages, reducing the value of the 30 or 60 second spots broadcast during the program.
Digital technologies further threaten the effectiveness of traditional TV commercial advertising. Digital video recorders (DVRs) have made recording television programs even easier. Time shifting is more and more prevalent. Alternative methods of delivering digital video such DVDs and the internet also mean that viewers are watching fewer and fewer TV commercials. This trend is likely to accelerate as new platforms and devices for delivering and displaying video are introduced.
Product placement is an alternative form of video advertising that avoids some of problems of traditional TV commercials. According this method, advertisers pay the producers to include their products in television programs and movies. As people watch a television program or movie in which products have been placed they are exposed to the product through the natural course of the story. Since there is no formal interruption of the program people are less likely leave the room or fast forward through a recorded program when the advertised products appear. Of course product placement advertising has its own set of limitations. Since the products are placed within the program in the context of the storyline, it usually is not possible to single out the product to extol is virtues. Thus, product placement is most effective for well known products with recognizable trademarks and company logos. Product placement serves mainly to raise awareness of the products and to make positive associations with the products based on a positive identification with the characters and the character's life style.
Where television has traditionally been a one way form communication, the proliferation of new communications technologies including cellular telephone networks, the internet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, digital cable networks, and the like, make it easier for viewers to not only access video content from a wider range of content providers, it also makes it much easier for viewers to communicate with the content providers. The possibility of two way communications between the viewer and the content provider (or an entity associated with the content provider) opens up new opportunities for providing a more interactive video or motion picture viewing experience, including, among other things, opportunities to develop new and better techniques for advertising and merchandising products directly to consumers. It also makes it easier for advertisers to identify which products are of interest to consumers so that interactive advertising may be more sharply focused toward an individual consumer's known preferences, and to sell products directly to customers via their television or other communication interface.